THE CHAIR RECOGNIZES THE GIZMO FROM CALIFORNIA – Hawaii Republican Charles Djou Tweets that the House parliamentarian has discovered he’s the “first Member of Congress to ever use an iPad during a floor speech.” CNN http://bit.ly/cReLts

ACTA UPDATE – Will the White House submit ACTA to the Senate for consideration as a treaty or just sign it as an executive agreement? USTR spokeswoman Nkenge Harmon tells Morning Tech: “I can tell you that an agreement that is consistent with U.S. law can be completed as an executive agreement. This is how we approach many of our agreements.”

As for charges that ACTA has been negotiated too secretly? “We’ve had a lot of conversations with folks about it. We think we’re being pretty open here.”

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? Expect Dennis Kucinich to drop a bill soon that would require cell phone companies to inform consumers about radiation emitted by their products. “Consumers have a right to know whether they are buying the phone with the lowest – or the highest – level of exposure to cell phone radiation,” the congressman says in a statement. ”They also deserve to have up to date standards, which are now decades old.”

MOVIN’ UP AT MICROSOFT – Fred Humphries, who has been leading Microsoft’s Washington office, has been promoted to Vice President of U.S. Government Affairs, reporting directly to general counsel Brad Smith. And Pamela Passman will add privacy, security and telecom to her regulatory portfolio. Humphries tells Morning Tech that his new role doesn’t change Microsoft’s priorities in Washington, which include the economy and jobs, cloud computing, immigration reform as well as trade.

SPEAKING OF CLOUDS – Microsoft will join Google and Salesforce at a hearing today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about security risks posed to federal data stored in the cloud. Members of the committee have previously expressed concern that there are no “clear policies and procedures in place” for its use. Background: http://bit.ly/ahsZvl

INTERNET-AGE DISABILITIES ACT MOVES FORWARD-- Rick Boucher’s communications subcommittee gave its blessing Wednesday – with a few tweaks – to a bill that seeks to improve Internet accessibility for disabled persons. Boucher is hoping for a vote in the House by “the later part of the summer.” More below.

BUT A (SMALL) STORM IS STILL BREWING – Ranking Member Cliff Stearns said late Wednesday he approved of the changes made official by Boucher’s substitute amendment, but he signaled in his opening remarks that he and other GOPers have reservations about its rigidity – specifically, that it would apply to “all disabilities.” That’s some of the same criticism that tech groups, including the Consumer Electronic Association, have already levied at the bill.

At the same time, committee member Marsha Blackburn used the legislation to slam the FCC on reclassification. Watch to see whether other House members adopt her calls to keep the agency on a close legal leash – even on items like disability access that don’t have a lot to do with net neutrality.

A Senate aide tells Morning Tech that hope is to mark up the bill in the Senate Commerce Committee not long after lawmakers return from the July 4th break.

BUT SEE THE BIG PICTURE, from a POLITICO story by us. “Dominating the Senate’s agenda for months have been big ticket items like health care and financial regulatory reform, and still looming on the docket are bills that tackle energy and perhaps immigration. While tech insiders accept that those issues are bound to take floor precedence, many are nonetheless frustrated that the most apolitical, bipartisan and popular of tech bills – like the R&D credit and America COMPETES -- have crashed head first into the Senate’s vicious politics.” http://politi.co/a7IIL1

The Senate has split for the recess, but a Senate Finance Committee aide tells Morning Tech that Chairman Max Baucus “is definitely still committed to passing” the R&D credit that died as a part of Democrats’ extenders bill last week. The chairman is in close touch with his colleagues, Harry Reid especially, to figure out how and when to bring the temporary credit extension back to the floor, the staffer says.

BREAKING: IT’S ALIVE! -- From our friend Sarah Kliff at POLITICO Pulse: “New insurance portal HealthCare.Gov launched late last night with approximately 500 pages of content and state-by-state listings of more than 5,500 open health insurance products. Health policy wonks across the country marvel at the data intensive site going live slightly ahead of schedule, a few hours before the July 1 deadline.

LIKE BUYING AIRLINE TICKETS - An administration official on the site’s next steps: “In October, 2010, price estimates for health insurance plans will be available online….This additional information will allow Americans to compare insurance policy costs the same way they compare the price of airline tickets and help bring about even more competition into the marketplace.”

TRACKING TELECOM INFLUENCE – AT&T has spent $266 million on lobbying since 1998, according to a new “Corruption Road” widget launched this week by Free Press. Comcast spent $12.6 million on 100 lobbyists last year, the widget says. For a closer look: http://bit.ly/bKg6Cr.

PUBLIC SAFETY SPAT – Top House Commerce Committee members sent a letter to the FCC on Wednesday questioning the viability of its plans to establish an interoperable public safety network due to the current equipment market. “Public safety has typically had to rely on an exclusive or limited vendor pool for equipment and devices, and the cost of equipment is often more expensive than comparable commercial equipment,” says the letter, signed by Waxman, Boucher, Barton and Stearns. “Some have suggested that these factors limit public safety’s options and may even undermine attempts to achieve interoperability.” The letter http://bit.ly/dsQRyi)

Public safety agencies have long complained about the high price of their equipment—some reaching upwards of $5,000 per device. But the letter probably isn’t a big hit at Motorola, the major provider of public safety equipment.

SKYPE SHOWDOWN – House Republicans are again pushing their Democratic colleagues to permit the use of Skype on congressional computers. … The party hopes to capitalize on a recent FCC post on Twitter, which urged consumers to try the free video service in order to save money and minutes each month. The GOP’s new media leaders say the same thinking should also apply to the House, where a chamber-wide block on access to Skype means lawmakers must rely on expensive teleconferencing services to chat with constituents over Web video. Story http://politi.co/9cz4Tf

OOPS: A MISUNDERSTANDING – One of 150 non-profits that signed onto a letter supporting the FCC’s open Internet efforts said yesterday that it was a “mistake” and that it doesn’t actually have a position on the matter. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation sent a letter to the FCC, saying “an employee within the organization believed they were responding as individuals to solicitations by SavetheInternet.com, and not representing JDRF.” The organization has a policy of not taking a stance on political issues, the letter said.

SPEED READ --

FRENCH SLAP GOOGLE FOR ADWORDS – Reports the WSJ’s Max Colchester: “France's competition authority Wednesday said that Google Inc.'s online ad service discriminated against a client, a decision that comes amid the country's growing concern over Google's dominance of the lucrative French search market .In a preliminary ruling, the Authorité de la Concurrence said that Google's Adwords system, which prompts ads to appear alongside search results, lacked transparency and ‘resulted in discriminatory treatment.’” http://bit.ly/bWXswA

ALSO: SEARCH SERVICES STILL PARTIALLY BLOCKED IN CHINA – More from the WSJ’s Scott Morrisson: “Google Inc. said that its Web search service in mainland China was partially blocked Wednesday, less than two days after the company announced changes aimed at keeping its Internet operating license in the country. The company said the blockage appeared to affect only search queries generated by mainland China users of the company's Google Suggest function, which automatically recommends search queries based on the first few letters a user types into the search box.” http://bit.ly/bd7u44

“COMCAST, NBCU SIGN AGREEMENT WITH LATINO GROUPS,” reports B&C’s John Eggerton. “Comcast and NBC Universal have struck a deal with a host of Latino organizations to expand opportunities for Latinos in both companies … Groups signing on to the agreement include the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the National Council of La Raza, and the League of United American Citizens, according to a Comcast blog post. The companies' pledges include on employment, programming, procurement, governance and corporate giving. The deal follows a more general, similar commitment to boosting diversity announced three weeks ago in advance of a field hearing on the joint venture at which diversity issues were a main focus.” http://bit.ly/bXkHpt

NEW FACEBOOK PRIVACY POLICY-- From the AP: “Facebook is rolling out a new feature that requires outside applications and websites to tell users exactly what parts of their profiles have to be shared for the apps to work. … Under the new policy, the services will say which aspects of a profile they will mine, but the user still won't be able to pick out which pieces they want to grant access to. They have to either grant permission or disallow the app from working at all.” http://bit.ly/adstLl